To: alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.pagan.magick,alt.magick.moderated,alt.activism
From: nagasiva@luckymojo.com (nigris (333))
Subject: Of Armchair Magicians and Thallophytic Thelemites
Date: 17 Nov 1996 00:02:40 -0800
49961017 AA1 Hail Satan!
E6
a needler,
> From: solis
wrote:
> Sheep in wolves clothing.
> ...really interesting takes on Thelema... who determines who is "scum"
> and who is doing their "will"?
we all do. that's the beauty of it.
> The truth is, most Thelemites wont do anything. They will sit in front
> of their computers until their eyes hurt, then they will stare at the TV
> screen until they fall asleep.
here I sit in front of the computer screen, my eyes strained, having been
at it all day long (and a few days previous as well). was revising the
_Mage's Guide to the Internet_ ( http://www.hollyfeld.org/magi ), noticing
that the work is never done, the revision required becoming continuous so
as not to let living breathing Web-links escape as they mutate and slough
off their old carcass-addresses.
here am I, the Emperor of the Armchair Magicians, dreaming vast visions,
placing them in a subtle gossamer which dissolves even as I watch, all
around me.
do I face the East, South, West and North to Call the Quarters or Banish
the 'Kakodaimonos'? no, I merely sit facing the West and my one-eyed
altar of silicon and steel, the Machine Messiah. do I wave my tools
about me in a fierce display of raw chakratic power? no, I merely move
my fingers in complex patterns, composing patterned language upon the
rectangle-eye of my worship. do I perchance shift from my position
and engage the teeming hordes in their revelrous and protestant parties,
displaying my acumen in persuasion and glamor? no, once in a while I
get up for food, to piss, and fetch a book from the library, inspired
to continue my technocratic dissolution. here let me read to you
something your words inspired me to find:
It is my Will to inform the World of certain
facts within my knowledge. I therefore take
"magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I
write "incantations" -- these sentences --
in the "magical language" i.e. that which is
understood by the people I wish to instruct;
I call forth "spirits"; such as printers,
publishers, booksellers, and so forth, and
constrain them to convey my message to those
people. The composition and distribution of
this book is thus an act of
MAGICK
by which I cause Changes to take place in
conformity with my Will!)
_Magick in Theory and Practice_, Crowley,
Dover Publications, NY, 1976;, p. XIII.
__________________________________________
_(11) Science enables us to take advantage of
the continuity of Nature by the empirical
application of certain principles whose
interplay involves different orders of idea
connected with each other in a way beyond
our present comprehension_....
_(21) There is no limit to the extent of the
relations of any man with the Universe in
essence; for as soon as man makes himself
one with any idea the means of measurement
cease to exist. But his power to utilize
that force is limited by his mental power
and capacity, and by the circumstances of
his human environment_....
_(23) Magick is the Science of understanding
oneself and one's conditions. It is the Art
of applying that understanding in action_....
_(24) Every man has an indefeasible right to
be what he is._ (Illustration: To insist
that any one else shall comply with one's
own standards is to outrage, not only him,
but oneself, since both parties are equally
born of necessity.)
_(25) Every man must do Magick each time that
he acts or even thinks, since a thought is
an internal act whose influence ultimately
affects action, though it may not do so at
the time_.
Ibid; pp. XV-XX.
__________________________________________
oh and
He was dressed in a flowing gown with fur
tippets which had the signs of the zodiac
embroidered over it, with various cabal-
istic signs, such as triangles with eyes
in them, queer crosses, leaves of trees,
bones of birds and animals, and a planet-
arium whose stars shone like bits of
looking-glass with the sun on them. He
had a pointed hat like a dunce's cap, or
like the headgear worn by ladies of that
time....
[He] had a long white beard and long
white moustaches which hung down on
either side of it. Close inspection
showed that he was far from clean. It
was not that he had dirty fingernails,
or anything like that, but some large
bird seemed to have been nesting in
his hair.... The old man was steaked
with droppings over his shoulders,
among the stars and triangles of his
gown, and a large spider was slowly
lowering itself from the tip of his
hat, as he gazed and slowly blinked
at the little boy in front of him. He
had a worried expression, as though
he were trying to remember some name
which began with Chol but which was
pronounced in quite a different way,
possibly Menzies or was it Danziel?
His mild blue eyes, very big and
round under the tarantula spectacles,
gradually filmed and clouded as he
gazed at the boy, and then turned his
head away with a resigned expression,
as though it was all too much for him
after all....
...Finally, when they had got them-
selves into the black and white
with as much trouble as if they were
burgling it, he climbed up the ladder
after his host and found himself in
the upstairs room.
It was the most marvellous room that
he had ever been in.
There was a real corkindrill hanging
from the rafters, very lifelike and
horrible with glass eyes and scaly
tail stretched out behind it. When
its master came into the room it
winked one eye in salutation, although
it was stuffed. There were thousands
of brown books in leather bindings,
some chained to the book-shelves and
others propped against each other as
if they had had too much to drink and
did not really trust themselves.
These gave out a smell of must and
solid brownness which was most secure.
Then there were stuffed birds,
poppinjays, and maggot-pies and king-
fishers, and peacocks with all their
feathers but two, and tiny birds like
beetles, and a reputed phoenix which
smelt of incense and cinnamon. It
could not have been a real phoenix,
because there is only of of these at
at a time. Over by the mantelpiece
there was a fox's mask, with GRAFTON,
BUCKINGHAM TO DAVENTRY, 2 HRS 20 MINS
written under it, and also a forty-
pound salmon with AWE, 43 MIN.,
BULLDOG written under it, and a very
life-like basilisk with CROWHURST
OTTER HOUNDS in Roman print. There
were several boars' tusks and the
claws of tigers and libbards mounted
in symmetrical patterns, and a big
head of Ovis Poli, six live grass
snakes in a kind of aquarium, some
nests of the solitary wasp nicely
set up in a glass cylinder, an
ordinary beehive whose inhabitants
went in and out of the window
unmolested, two young hedgehogs
in cotton wool, a pair of badgers
which immediately began to cry
Yik-Yik-Yik-Yik in loud voices as
soon as the magician appeared, twenty
boxes which contained stick
caterpillars and sixths of the
puss-moth, and even an oleander that
was worth sixpence -- all feeding on
the appropriate leaves -- a guncase
with all sorts of weapons which
would not be invented for half a
thousand years, a rod-box ditto, a
chest of drawers full of salmon flies
which had been tied by Merlyn himself,
another chest whose drawers were
labelled Mandragora, Old Man's Beard,
etc., a bunch of turkey feathers and
goose-quills for making pens, an
astrolabe, twelve pairs of boots, a
dozen purse-nets, three dozen rabbit
wires, twelve corkscrews, some ants'
nests between two glass plates,
ink-bottles of every possible colour
from red to violet, darning-needles,
a gold medal for being the best
scholar at Winchester, four or five
recorders, a nest of field mice all
alive-o, two skulls, plenty of cut
glass, Venetian glass, Bristol glass
and a bottle of Mastic varnish, some
satsuma china and some cloisonne, the
fourteenth edition of the Encyclopedia
Brittanica (marred as it was by the
sensationalism of the popular plates),
two paint-boxes (one oil, one water-
colour), three globes of the known
geographical world, a few fossils, the
stuffed head of a cameleopard, six
pismires, some glass retorts with
cauldrons, bunsen burners, etc., and a
complete set of cigarette cards
depicting water fowl by Peter Scott.
-----------------------------------------
_The Once and Future King_, by T.H.White,
G.P.Putnam's Sons, NY; pp. 22-5.
_________________________________________
So with thy all, thou hast no right but to do thy will,
nigris (333)
nagasiva@luckymojo.com